Embattled French Arms Dealer Fears Indictment [Sunday Independent, 2005-10-16]

Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2005-10-16 Reporter: Alide Dasnois Reporter: Jeremy Gordin

Embattled French Arms Dealer Fears Indictment

Publication	Sunday Independent
Date	2005-10-16
Reporter	Alide Dasnois, Jeremy Gordin
Web link	www.sundayindependent.co.za

French arms dealer Thales (known locally as Thint) is concerned that it may be charged in the forthcoming corruption trial of former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

"It's obvious, isn't it," said a senior lawyer advocate connected with the trial.

"Judge Hilary Squires found the company complicit in the Schabir Shaik matter, in the third charge against Shaik - the one related to the bribe arranged by Shaik to be paid by Thint [then called Thomson] to Zuma."

Squires found that an agreement had been concluded between Shaik and Alain Thetard, the local manager of Thomson, that Thomson would pay Zuma R500 000 a year in exchange for protection during the arms-deal investigation and help in securing government contracts in future.

"So even if Thint is not charged alongside Zuma in the indictment due to be presented on November 2, the company is certainly going to feature in the trial," said the advocate.

Ajay Sooklal, a Pretoria attorney, was present with a "watching brief" for Thint during Zuma's appearance in the Durban magistrate's court this week, as he was during the Shaik trial.

Charges were withdrawn against Thint during the Shaik trial - the company was previously one of the accused - following a deal *1 concluded by Penuell Maduna, the former minister of justice, and Bulelani Ngcuka, the former head of the National Prosecuting Authority, on the one hand, and Kessie Naidu SC, then acting for Thint, on the other.

Charges would be dropped against Thint in return for an affidavit about an encrypted fax from Thetard. *2 However, following the Shaik judgment, this deal no longer applies.

"I can't comment on the judge's remarks," said Christophe Robin, a Thales spokesperson in France this week. "But we have always denied the charges. As far as we are concerned, this matter has been settled."

Neither Thetard, who now works in the finance section of Thales in Paris, nor Jean-Paul Perrier, the top Thales executive and head of its international division, who was said to have approved the Zuma payment, could be reached for comment. All attempts to speak to them or to the group's legal department were referred to Robin.

Thales is already battling allegations of corruption made by a former employee, Michel Josserand, who was head of Thales Engineering and Consulting.

In an interview in the French newspaper Le Monde last month, Josserand claimed that up to 2 percent of the group's euros E10,3 billion (about R77 billion) annual turnover was spent on illegal payments.

Josserand stated that corruption was "rife" at Thales and that the group had set up an elaborate system to get around a convention signed by countries in the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation in 2000 that bans hidden commissions on deals.

Much of the money, he claimed, was paid through Thales International through sub-contractors in foreign countries. In Africa, Korea, Greece and Italy, illegal payments of this sort were "inevitable".

"It is a very widespread practice... Thales International pays the bigger sums. Smaller amounts, of about E50 000, can be paid by subsidiaries."

Thales has denied the allegations, pointing out that the group has laid charges against Josserand for corruption over a tramway contract in Nice.

The company has made no comment on the scandal a few years ago over the sale of frigates to Taiwan and that is still under investigation; or on the more recent allegations of corruption in a contract to manage air-waves in Argentina; and not on the Shaik affair.

Paris prosecutors have opened a preliminary inquiry into the corruption allegations.

With acknowledgements to Alide Dasnois, Jeremy Gordin and Sunday Independent.

*1 One of the greatest acts of human stupidity since Adam and Eve gifted their mitchondrions some 150 thousand years ago to about 25 billion inheritants, many of whom went on to become great morons, but almost none as great as these two buffoons in the Great Tale of the Two Affidavits.

*2 In exchange for one affidavit, but instead the two morons got two affidavits and a not so polite decline of their invitation to attend proceedings in Durban.

If this hadn't happened, the following would have resulted :

SSI du Plooy's team's job in Round No. 1 would have been must easier;
Advocates Downer's and Steynberg's jobs in Round No. 1 would have been must easier;
Squires J's job in Round No. 1 would have been must easier and quicker;
the singular ground for appeal in Count 3 of Squires's Shaik judgment would not existed;
Thetard might have escaped justice, but Thint SA would not have done so in Round No.1;
Zuma could easily have been tried during Round No.1, saving not only enormous costs and DSO/NPA resources, but saving the entire country from all the trauma of there having to be a Round No.2;
the most corrupt entity of all, i.e. Thomson-CSF/Thales Incorporated, not Thetard, not Shaik, not Nkobi Holdings, not Floryn Investments, not Clanwest Investments, not Jacob Zuma, would have for one of the first times in its filthy existence, felt the intensely bright spotlight of criminal proceedings in open public court under the stewardship of Advocates William Downer SC and Anton Steynberg and the under the eagle eyes of His Lordship Judge Hilary G. Squires and his two Gentleman Assessors, Mr J.I. Jacobsz and Mr A.B. Mohamed SC.